European Institute

As the “Great Recession” recedes, the aftershocks of public anger are exploding with a political passion not seen since the Great Depression.. In this tumult, knives are out for the two leading central banks – the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB), the agencies responsible for monetary policies underpinning the world’s most important economies and markets.

On February 5, 2010, The European Institute held a meeting of its Transatlantic Roundtable on Trade entitled “Staying Competitive - Europe's Response to Institutional and Societal Challenges” focusing on Europe’s Competition Policy under the Lisbon Treaty and the EU’s 2020 Policy. Isabelle Benoliel, Director for Registry and Resources at the Directorate-General for Competition at the European Commission spoke about the challenges to competition policy within the European Union, especially while tackling the ongoing global economic crisis.  Elizabeth Kraus, Deputy Director for International Antitrust at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Office of International Affairs spoke about the need for the U.S. to continue to work with the Commission on the challenges facing competition focusing in particular on the need for cooperation and convergence of EU and U.S. policies. John Briggs, Co-Chair of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider’s Antitrust Practice and Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington office, was the moderator of the discussion.

Traditional British Law Overtaken by Evolution of Globalizing Realities

British libel law, according to The Economist, means in practice that “anyone anywhere in the world who can prove that someone in England has bought, read, or downloaded potentially defamatory material about them can start a court case.” That’s unique – and that jurisdictional sweep is not the end of it.

Idea Google being Demonized in France as “Great Satan” of Web Hegemony

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made it official that he intends to tax foreign internet companies on their online sales in France, an initiative colloquially referred to as “The Google Tax.” The idea -- the latest in a series of legal and political moves against Google's activities in France -- proposes to tax advertising revenues from online giants such as Google to support the creative industries in France hit by the digital revolution. But critics say it is unworkable, perhaps even counter-productive and could at best simply prop up failing business models.